1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tone control apparatus which controls or adjusts a tone of an image, which is of a two dimensional object (i.e., manuscript) such as a negative or positive film or a three dimensional object, represented by electrical image signals and displayed in a display.
2. Description of Related Art
There are known image readers in which image data, recorded on a sheet of manuscript such as a positive or negative silver salt film, is read by an image pickup device or a similar mechanism, and is then converted to electrical image signals. The electrical image signals thus obtained, are reproduced as a picture in a display, such as an LCD (i.e., Liquid Crystal Display) or CRT 15, so that the picture can be visually monitored.
However, in conventional image readers, it was impossible to directly compare the manuscript and the image thereof picked-up by the image pickup device and displayed in the same display. Namely, while the manuscript is inserted in the image reader for reading and reproducing data recorded thereon in the monitor, one cannot look at the manuscript itself in order to compare the color (i.e, tone) of the image displayed in the monitor with that of the manuscript. Consequently, it was impossible for an operator to visually observe a tone difference between the color of the manuscript (i.e., recorded image thereon) and the color of the reproduced image thereof displayed in the display (i.e., monitor). Hence, fine color or tone adjustment could not be effected by the user.
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a tone control apparatus in which, when an image of a manuscript read by an image reader and represented by electrical image signals is reproduced in a monitor, the tone of the reproduced image can be adjusted to be the same as that of the manuscript, without visually comparing the colors of the manuscript and the reproduced image thereof in the monitor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tone control apparatus in which, when an image of a manuscript read by an image reader and represented by electrical image signals is reproduced in a monitor, the tone of the reproduced image can be adjusted while looking at the manuscript whose image is also displayed in the monitor, in addition to the reproduced image thereof read by the image reader and represented by electrical image signals.